UNDP Equator Prize 2021

• Vaid's ICS, Lucknow
• 23, Jul 2021

Why in News?

Two Indian communities have bagged this year’s UNDP Equator Prize. They have won this prestigious prize for their exceptional achievement in exhibiting innovative, local and various nature-based solutions for tackling climate change and biodiversity loss and also achieving their local development goals.

Winners from India:

• Out of the ten winners globally, the two Indian winning organizations from are the Snehakunja Trust and Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited.
• These two communities will win a prize amount of 10,000 USD.
• They will also get the opportunity to join a series of virtual events associated with the Nature for Life Hub, UN General Assembly and the UN Food Systems Summit later in this year.
• The winners from India will join a network of 255 communities that have received the Equator Prize from over 80 countries.
• The virtual award ceremony is scheduled to be held on the month of October, 2021.
• The UNDP Equator Prize was started from 2002.

Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited

Aadhimalai Pazhangudiyinar Producer Company Limited is a cooperative having 1700 member.

• It is run and managed entirely by the indigenous people from the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve, Tamil Nadu.
• The work done by this community, in the past eight years, has improved the livelihood across 147 villages by marketing and processing a diverse range of crops and forest produce.
• Harvesting and agricultural practices are regularly monitored so as to ensure the product quality and also to prevent resource overuse.

Snehakunja Trust

• For 45 years, the Snehakunja Trust has protected the coastal ecosystems and sensitive wetlands in the Karnataka coast and the Western Ghatswith a focus on community-based conservation and restoration.
• This organization has supported and helped hundreds of village forest committees and self-help groups to manage resources sustainably based on implementation of various natural farming techniques, traditional knowledge, usage of clean energy, promoting entrepreneurship, and also by providing community health services.
• Currently, this trust is piloting India’s first blue carbon project.

Selection of Winners

The winners of this prize were selected from a pool of over 600 nominations from 126 countries by an independent Technical Advisory Committee consisting of experts who are internationally renowned.

Facts for Prelims:

Indian Labor Conference:

Recently, ‘Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’ has written a letter to the Prime Minister calling for organizing ‘Indian Labor Conference’ (ILC).

The ‘Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh’ argues that since the Indian Parliament has ratified Convention No. 144 of the International Labor Organization, it is the legal obligation of the Government of India to organize an ‘Indian Labor Conference’ to strengthen this tripartite system.